


Jay Myers - Jerk Therapist

by MusicLover19



Series: Soulmate AU - AINTA [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Child Stiles, Emotionally Hurt Stiles Stilinski, Hurt Stiles, Poor Stiles, Psychopathology & Sociopathy, Stiles Needs a Hug, because he really is messed up, i honestly felt horrible writing this and thinking about it, i think, jay is a complete jerk, like I don't think I can warn you all enough for that, very bad therapy, why isn't there a majorly fucked up warning?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-12
Updated: 2017-01-12
Packaged: 2018-09-17 02:06:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9299342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MusicLover19/pseuds/MusicLover19
Summary: An inside look into what happened between Stiles and his childhood therapist, Jay Myers.Links to Avoidance is not the Answer, but readable without that, a lot less satisfying without it in my opinion but hey ho!It isn't a pleasant thing, so I am sorry in advance.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I'll be honest, I did have a lot more planned for this one but it was so exhausting to write. Also, I would have normally read through what I post a few times in hopes of catching errors but I didn't have the mental power to do that.  
> ALSO! Jay is seriously fucked up. Just saying.

“You must be Stiles,” Jay spoke gently, knowing that the boy was going through some trouble. He had been cautioned just before the session that the boy was refusing to go by his original name, preferring Stiles instead. He looked older than eight years old, his eyes held so much grief and he stood as though he was prepared to fight. “My name is Jay, I’ll be the one seeing you until we both feel you’re able to stop these visits. This is a safe space for you, nothing that we talk about will be said to your parents unless you agree to it, do you understand?”

Stiles nodded.

“Great! I want you to know that you can trust me -”

“She’s dying,” Stiles said, his voice high and childlike as he looked Jay in the eyes for the first time. “They – they said that she was ok, just sick but she’s not getting better.”

Jay regarded Stiles for a moment, he had a feeling that Stiles knew more than he let on. Therefore, if he was right, this was a test. It was rare for a child so young to do something like this, normally it was teenagers that would dangle information to see how you reacted, whether you lied or not.

“Your mother, right?” Jay clarified, having read as much in the boys file. “She has a problem with her brain, do you –”

“I know what the brain is,” Stiles snapped. “She has dementia, which means she forgets things so I shouldn’t be upset when she –” he froze for a second. “She isn’t getting better…” he whispered.

“When someone has something wrong with their brain, sometimes it doesn’t get better,” Jay explained carefully.

“It’s getting worse,” Stiles added.

“How do you know it’s getting worse?” Jay asked, watching as Stiles began to fidget for the first time. He looked down at his hands and his confidence had seemed to have just disappeared, making Jay think that the boy had been acting.

“She – she thinks I’m trying to kill her,” Stiles admitted in a whisper. “They don’t know I know but I heard her say it.”

Jay tilted his head, watching Stiles with a carefully blank expression.

“Have you thought about doing it?” he asked.

“No!” Stiles said loudly, looking horrified. “She’s my mom!”

“Sometimes we get thoughts that we would never act on,” Jay said gently. “It doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. It’s only bad if you do it.”

Stiles nodded to himself, clearly in thought.

“Sometimes… sometimes I _want_ her dead,” Stiles whispered, barely audible in the large room. “She makes dad so sad and he’s drinking and…”

“It feels like it would be easier without her making either of you hurt,” Jay finished, hiding his smile when Stiles nodded erratically. “You both would be upset if she was dead,” Jay pointed out.

“I know,” Stiles frowned, as if he had realised that fact beforehand.

Jay sat back in his chair, letting a hint of his smile break through as he met Stiles’ eyes. Perhaps _this_ child wouldn’t be as boring as the others had been.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

“You see Stiles,” Jay sighed in concern. “I have seen this happen a lot. There are lots of children that start to believe that protesting against the soulmate system is the way forward. Very few of those children stick with that thought, there is a certain thing that happens when you reject it so strongly. I know this is our first session since your mother passed away, but I would like to tell you about what I’ve seen happen to some of those children. Is that ok?” Jay asked.

Stiles just stared at Jay, not really seeing the man in front of him. It hadn’t even been two days since he had watched his mother die in front of him. Once again, Stiles’ father had requested a quick word before the session, mentioning how the kid’s teachers had caught him scratching at his soulmate marks, he had managed to scratch so much that they had bled and when asked why, he had responded how much he didn’t want them. He didn’t want a soulmate, he didn’t want _any_.

“My sister was like you,” Jay said, knowing that as unengaged as Stiles seemed to be, he was actually still listening to every word being said. “She begged me to help her find a way to get rid of her mark. We found a group that was looking into it and we went to talk to them. There was this one woman, she had so many scars over her arm…”

Jay lost himself into his past whilst he told Stiles.

_“You’re her,” Jay had gasped, his eyes on the woman before him. She was younger than he had expected, barely an adult if he had to guess. She looked like something to be cherished, her eyes shining with passion as she talked to the people around her. She had barely even acknowledged his presence, not even the words spoken to her seemed to make her pause._

_One of the most eye-catching things about her was the fact that her arm was heavily scarred. She had blistered skin, as if she was recovering from burns, along with fainter scars that almost sparkled in the light. Those scars were self-inflicted, Jay had seen many of them during his training as a psychologist._

“She had tried so many things to get rid of her soulmate mark. She had cut herself, she had burnt herself with fire, and she had even put acid over the mark. Do you know what happens when acid comes into contact with someone’s skin?” Jay asked rhetorically. “It causes a chemical burn,” Jay continued. “They are so much more painful than a normal burn. Some acids even eat away the skin.”

Jay smirked as Stiles flinched backwards slightly at the description.

“I’m telling you this because there is no _safe_ way to remove the mark, there is no _painless_ way,” Jay smiled. “She managed it though, she found a way to remove her mark, and the one that was on myself at the same time. She had managed to break that bond –”

“How?” Stiles had whispered.

“I’m not going to tell you,” Jay smirked. “It would be irresponsible, and highly against policy,” he added.

“Please,” Stiles begged.

“No,” Jay said softly, forcing a regretful tone. It was always fun for him to do this, to dangle such a tempting thing before the children that came to him.

“I’ll do anything!” Stiles continued, stopping at Jay’s quiet chuckle.

“Oh Stiles, don’t make this so boring now,” the man chastised. In the beginning, he _had_ taken a few of them up on that offer. It was so easy to do, young teens that knew no better, children who didn’t know _just_ what they were offering for information. It would be boring to take that from Stiles, not when the boy had so much potential to be so interesting. “We are going to keep our sessions as we are meant to, then, _and only then_ , I will consider it.”

Stiles nodded, instantly agreeing.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The year passed in a similar way. Stiles continued to show signs of heavy panic attacks, seeming to grown from the fear of meeting his soulmate before he could get rid of his marks. He had continuously begged Jay in the beginning for information, for _hints_ on what to do.

“I’ll be honest Stiles,” Jay had said one of the sessions that started with Stiles asking for help once again. “I don’t think you would be strong enough to manage it. You would be better to just be a good boy and let yourself meet your soulmate.”

After a while, the questions stopped. Stiles didn’t ask for information on how to remove the mark. He didn’t talk much at all. He would just sit and let Jay lead the conversation, quietly nodding or shaking his head in response to some of the questions.

One of the more memorable sessions had been when Stiles had wandered into the room, eyes heavy, and hair tussled before he sunk into the chair he had chosen when they had first begun to see each other.

“How are you feeling today Stiles?”

A shrug.

“We had this talk before Stiles,” Jay said with a sigh, his initial enjoyment with Stiles having disappeared. “You need to talk to me if you want to stop coming here.”

“I couldn’t sleep.”

The exhaustion was clear on him, so much so that Jay couldn’t help the frown.

“Why do you think that is?” Jay asked, slipping back into his therapist mode, sometimes it did good to actually _help_ them.

“I keep seeing _her_ ,” Stiles admitted in a quiet voice.

It took all of Jay’s strength to stop his smile. He couldn’t risk being caught just now, Stiles had always been perceptive. It had been a while since Stiles had complained about this _particular_ problem. Understandably, Stiles had barely been able to even blink without remembering the image of his mother’s lifeless body on the hospital bed. Slowly, those images had begun to haunt him less, letting him focus on the more worrisome issues.

“It’s been a while since you’ve mentioned your mother,” Jay said carefully, as if the smallest mention of her would make Stiles pull back. He tilted his head slightly, feeling the need to make the whole meeting more _interesting_. “I think the last time you mentioned her was when you said you might have had a part in her death,” he mused innocently.

“That isn’t true!” Stiles yelled, giving Jay a betrayed look.

“Oh, really?” Jay asked, letting a mask of confusion fall as he looked down at Stiles’ folder, flicking through the few notes he had made. “I am sure you said something like that.”

“I didn’t!” Stiles protested strongly, his small hands starting to shake.

“Are you sure Stiles?” Jay asked, biting the inside of his lip slightly to stop his smirk. “You _did_ tell me that you had thought about it. Are you absolutely sure you didn’t do _something_? You even said that she was scared of you, there must have been a reason –”

“Shu – shut up,” Stiles whispered, the strength having left his voice, the exhaustion catching up to him.

“She must have had a reason Stiles,” Jay said firmly. Not giving into Stiles’ weak protest.

“She hurt me!” Stiles said loudly, the tears that had been gathering, now overflowing.

“So it was self-defence,” Jay nodded.

“No!” Stiles wailed. “I – I didn’t –”

“You can tell me the truth Stiles,” Jay reminded him, keeping his voice gently soft. “I won’t tell your dad. I won’t tell anyone,” he promised. “But if you keep hiding the truth your dad might notice something, he _is_ the Sheriff after all.”

The silent tears falling changed to heavier tears. Stiles wiped at his eyes with force as he gave up the pretence of calming. It was almost magical to watch from Jay’s perspective.

“I dreamed it,” Stiles managed to gasp out through the tears that were falling. He hadn’t yet dissolved into loud sobs, but it was something Jay had hoped to achieve by the end of the session. “I heard the machines stop and the nurse push me out of the room and then – then it happened. I didn’t – I couldn’t – I didn’t do anything,” Stiles managed to get out before the tears began stronger. His words wavered before she finally broke.

Jay watched silently as Stiles pressed a hand over his mouth to stifle the noise. Whines left the small body as his face turned slightly red. There was something about watching someone break so much that they forgot the world around them, it was transfixing. 

Jay knew that without even saying anything more, every single thing he had said, _everything_ he had hinted at would stick with Stiles. It was one of the joys of working with such impressionable children. They were weak. Easily manipulated.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Stiles didn’t mention his mother again after that session. The following few showed just how subdued Stiles was. The boy was clearly not sleeping well. Barely even making any verbal remarks. It was remarkable to see how his file had labelled him as a difficult child because if anyone were to meet him now, they would have no idea.

One session in particular stood out. Stiles had seemed less exhausted, more depressed.

“What’s going on Stiles?” Jay asked, projecting the calming tone back into his voice. Sure, it was tiring to _act_ but the rewards at the end of it all were always more satisfying.

A shake of the head.

A close look at the man would show the barely visible tic in his jaw at Stiles’ response. He had dealt with the silence _so_ patiently so far, it would be wrong to give that up now. Thankfully, Jay didn’t have to wait long before Stiles was opening up.

“Alice met her soulmate.”

_Ah_ , that would explain it. Jay made a thoughtful noise, waiting for Stiles to continue. It was important that _he_ offer this up rather than being prompted and pushed to share.

“She seems _happy_ ,” the stress that Stiles put on that one word seemed to dictate just how this conversation would go.

“Most people are happy Stiles,” Jay said slowly.

“But what happens when they leave,” Stiles frowned.

“Normal people don’t worry about that,” Jay said, noting how Stiles flinched back. “Alice seems happy,” Jay repeated, using Stiles’ words.

The boy nodded.

“He picks her up from school and they hug and hold hands,” Stiles said quietly. “Everyone just smiles at them.”

“Soulmates _are_ a gift Stiles,” Jay reminded him.

“I don’t want it,” Stiles said firmly, meeting Jay’s eyes in defiance. “ _No one_ should have soulmates.”

“Do you remember what I told you when we realised how much you didn’t want a soulmate?” Jay asked, waiting for Stiles hesitant nod. “My soulmate was a lot like you in how she thought. She hated that we met and when she managed to get her mark gone, it changed something in her,” _and me_.

Stiles wriggled on the chair, feeling suddenly uncomfortable.

“You see, I was called by the hospital,” Jay continued. “I was so worried that she was really hurt, but she was just laid on the bed smiling. She expected me to be happy that our marks were gone, that we were unblemished,” Jay gave Stiles a cold smile. “I got so angry with her,” he sighed. “I asked her _how_ she had managed it. Unfortunately, she was dead the next day,” Stiles wriggled more as Jay spoke. Something about the unconcerned tone and nonchalant way he spoke made him worried.

“ _That_ is what happens when you reject your soulmates Stiles,” Jay said calmly, “ _You_ end up dead and no one wants to see you dead Stiles, that is why we need to work through this.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

From that moment on, it became more of a game. Jay would half-heartedly explain to Stiles that he was trying to help whilst continuously peppering the sessions by telling him how disappointed he was that the boy was still fighting against the truth. How he was sad that Stiles would end up like all the other children that fight so hard against reality and Jay was only _trying_ to keep him alive.

Once Stiles had stopped fighting back so much, it was time to change what was happening. The boy was not accepting _anything_ he was told. He was just letting all of the comments wash over him.

“I’ll be honest Stiles,” Jay sighed during the last session. “I _had_ thought you would be more fun to play with. But you accepted everything I said so readily. You really would have made your soulmate so happy with how submissive you are. Taking all the abuse so nicely, every single negative word,” the last four words were said slowly. “You really are stupid to want to give up everything that comes with soulmates, but you are a child. So, I shouldn’t be too harsh I guess. You don’t know any better,” he sighed.

Jay saw the shock in Stiles’ eyes. The panic. It had been far too long.

In the beginning, it was easier. The hospital had been less concerned about their security. It was a small town, _nothing_ ever happens. Why did it matter if the rough numbers changed a little without explanation? It wasn’t as if it happened all that often.

“I’m sorry,” Stiles forced out, his hands clawing at Jay’s as he tried to push the man away. “I – I want my soulmate – I’ll – I – I’ll be good,” his breath was getting fainter.

“Stop it,” Jay hissed, tightening his hold and getting more annoyed the longer the boy stayed conscious. Normally he had gotten his hold just right, when it was done properly the person beneath him would be unconscious within seconds. Yet, Stiles didn’t seem willing to comply with all his squirming. It only made Jay more agitated, more determined to see the boy slump.

It wasn’t exactly a difficult thing to get right, pressure on the carotid artery and the person would faint from a lack of oxygen. Then, it was a case of letting go and leaving them blissfully unconscious whilst he finished what he needed to do.

Stiles, however, seemed to still have enough fight in him to struggle and squirm away from him, trying his best to get away from the rough hands.

“ _Please_!” Stiles gasped, seeming to have _finally_ gotten the memo that he had very little power in the situation.

“You wanted your mark gone Stiles,” Jay pointed out, lightening the hold on the boy’s neck for a second. He watched hungrily as Stiles gulped in air, trying to get the airflow back to his brain.

There was a knock on the door, making Jay curse.

“Stay there!” he hissed, his eyes now emotionless as he stood to see just who was interrupting _his_ session.

As soon as Jay had moved, Stiles brought a hand to his neck, still breathing heavily as he rubbed the skin. Jay hadn’t been harsh enough to leave more than a faint red mark, having managed to perfect the hold to cause minimal damage.

Stiles could hear Jay’s gently tone, making him shiver at the stark contrast between that and the one he had _just_ used to address him. It was all that was needed to make the tears bubble up once again. Stiles didn’t understand just what had happened. He didn’t want to understand. He wanted to be as far away from Jay as he possibly could.

Moving silently, Stiles managed to make his way over to Jay’s open window. The therapists weren’t meant to leave any clients unattended, so they were given the liberty of having openable windows. Thankfully, or rather, luckily, Jay’s office was on the ground floor.

Stiles hesitated for a second, only firmly making his choice when he heard Jay’s voice grow louder, harsher as he complained about being interrupted during an _important_ session.

Stiles didn’t look back, slipping out from the window and running. He didn’t know where he would go but as long as he was as far away from that man as possible, he didn’t care.


End file.
